


Reconnect

by DPaladinD



Series: Captive Behind Glass saga [3]
Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Catching Up, Doll!Asuna, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:07:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29386743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DPaladinD/pseuds/DPaladinD
Summary: Following Asuna's rescue, Kirito has a chance to sit down and try to reconnect with her after her ordeal.
Relationships: Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito/Yuuki Asuna | Asuna
Series: Captive Behind Glass saga [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1765540
Kudos: 3





	Reconnect

**Author's Note:**

> Uploader's Note: This was a request I brought up to aj_linguistik some time ago now. I'm uploading it here so it can be archived with the rest of the series it is part of, without giving him credit for the rest of the series that he had no input on, as per his request.
> 
> A/N: This was a request made by DPaladinD to accompany his work Captive Behind Glass. We discussed a follow-up scene and this was my take, from Kazuto’s perspective, on him reconnecting with Asuna after five years while she is still under the effects of the curse of the kidnapper. I had to re-read the original fic a few times to try and understand how to best respond to someone else’s work, which was admittedly a bit challenging for me. Alas! I found an angle that worked for me in Kazuto’s awe of Asuna’s strength, and I do hope that his respect for her is his most apparent quality in writing this reconnection. 

**Reconnect**

Five years was a long time. Friends who reconnected after such a long time often dealt with awkward pauses, shyer glances than before, and no small amount of talking about the weather. But this was Asuna, the love of his life and the one he’d chosen to be with until death do they part. He shouldn’t be having such trouble reconnecting with her, but the truth of the matter was that everything about this situation felt off. He couldn’t put his thoughts into words easily when he wasn’t even sure how this was possible in the first place.

“So, how have you been?” was such an inappropriate question here. Where was he supposed to start, though? She’d been trapped behind glass in a literal case—a situation uncomfortably similar to her time in a cage by Sugou’s merciless hand. Drawing in a breath, he helped Asuna onto the desk beside him as he read and placed his cheek in his hand as he thought about what to say.

“Have you been looking for me all of this time?” Asuna asked.

He stopped turning pages and glanced over at her, giving her that dreaded awkward smile. He hoped that she could forgive his awkwardness. It wasn’t every day that one talked to a doll who also happened to be their girlfriend. Thinking about it that way made him shudder. He had to reframe that. Otherwise, he was making himself sound like a man who kept dolls for a not-so-innocent reason. It was important to focus on the truth, here. This _was_ Asuna. She needed him to think of her as human so that she’d believe she was human.

“Never stopped,” he said, sighing. “You’re very important to me.”

Asuna nodded her head and scooted a little closer to him. She smiled up at Kazuto, her porcelain skin glinting in the fluorescent light above them.

“Was I a gift?” she asked.

There were some moments where she seemed to recall things, but then there were others where she clearly still thought of herself as a doll. It was unnerving, the effect the spell had had on her. Her mind was addled with falsehoods. He needed her to remember that she was more than just an object. The loss of her humanity was grave. He reached out one hand to her and watched as she placed her stiff fingers on one of his.

“No, Asuna,” he said. “You and I met fighting for our lives. We chose one another of our own free wills. You don’t remember any of that?”

She tilted her head. It was hard to know if she was thinking or not. Her face was unmoving, a still image that was frozen in a permanent smile. Kazuto felt his blood boil just a bit. Was that a sick joke? Did the man who’d taken her find pleasure in capturing women and forcing them to smile? He wanted to tell Asuna about the anger he felt towards her captor. He feared, however, that she wouldn’t understand in her current state. She had no problem with considering herself an object and a gift. Oh, how it pained him to see her think this way. 

“How could I have chosen you?” she asked. “I can only remember sitting on display for others, making them smile as I smiled at them.”

Kazuto shook his head.

“No, no…Asuna, you’re so much more than that,” he said.

She lifted her head up and clutched his finger a little tighter. What was going through her head that clouded it so? He would just have to tell her. The only way to help her remember would be through talking about their experiences together. He gently reached out his thumb and placed it over her hands, careful not to squeeze them out of fear that they might break.

“You’re a strong warrior,” he said. “Though, when I met you, your strongest trait was perhaps stubbornness.”

While she couldn’t make a face, he could practically feel her puffing up her cheeks and giving him an irritated look. A light chuckle escaped from his lips. He lifted the finger she was holding and poked her. Asuna placed her hands on her hips and shook her head at him.

“Behave yourself!” she said.

His heart fluttered for a moment, joyful to hear her stern tone at last. It was just a glimpse of the Asuna he’d known. She was in there, deep down. This would work. Kazuto pulled his hand back and covered his mouth with his fist as he cleared his throat.

“My apologies,” he said. “Now, would you like to hear the story of how we met? And of how we fell in love?”

Asuna tilted her head for a moment, staring up at him with her unblinking eyes.

“In love?” she repeated.

A tinge of pain squeezed his heart. Did she really not remember anything? He nodded, trying not to betray the inner turmoil that tossed about in his chest. Staying calm was a key part of all of this. Asuna needed his patience more than anything right now. He had to steady his voice and keep his face from showing how much her memory loss hurt. So, he put forth a smile and nodded his head at her as gently as he could. One might barely even know that he’d nodded.

“That’s right,” he said. “You’re my girlfriend, remember? I mentioned that before Sinon was here.”

There was a pause before Asuna nodded her head.

“Right!” she said. “Of course. My apologies, you did mention that.”

He leaned back on the desk, getting himself comfortable before he started telling her the story of their love. It was a lengthy tale, if he had to be honest with himself. Despite the span of time feeling like nothing when compared to the bond they’d shared, Kazuto couldn’t help but feel like he was telling a full life story. He told her about their first meeting in the dungeons on the first floor of Aincrad. He laughed about their misadventures as a traveling duo, noting all of the times they’d accomplished great things or managed to mess up in admittedly inexcusable ways.

As he spoke, he could feel her listening intently to him. Was she taking it all in and remembering? Or was she just nodding along as he spoke, considering it all a grand and wonderful story? He did his best to emphasize that the strong woman he’d met in Aincrad was none other than she, Asuna, the Vice Commander and Lightning Flash. He couldn’t search her eyes to know if some little memory sparked anything in her mind. It frustrated him, but he kept going nonetheless. She finally stood up and stopped him, just after he described their first kiss.

“Our first kiss…” she mumbled.

He nodded and adjusted how he was leaning on the desk.

“Yes,” he said. “Certainly not the last. I mean, I haven’t even finished our adventures in SAO yet. Just wait until we get to the real world. And to other VRMMO’s we’ve played. We’ve been very close ever since that kiss. Practically inseparable, if you can believe it.”

She hummed and placed her chin in her palm. For someone so determined to believe that she was a doll and had always been one, she certainly still acted very human in the ways that she posed herself as she interacted with him. Slowly, she was regaining the humanity she’d lost. Was it by talking to him? Perhaps it would do her good to talk to the others, once he tackled the issue of explaining this situation to them. He would need Yui and Sinon’s help, for sure. 

Asuna paced back and forth on the desk, keeping her face turned down. Love was a grand concept even for a human being. Kazuto hoped that his love would reach her in her current state. If anything could pull her out of the fog she was in, it was love. The love of her friends and her family; the love in his heart that was meant only for her. He made sure that every word spoken to her was filled with his love. It would bring her back to him.

“Is this a bit much to take in?” he asked.

Her head wavered a bit, somewhere between a nod and a shake. She finally did an about-face and lifted her face to look at his.

“What have you been doing these past five years, then?” she asked. “Just looking for me? To tell me all of this?”

He chuckled and shook his head.

“I didn’t search for you just to tell you all of this, Asuna,” he said. “I searched for you because I love you very much. You’re more important to me than anything in this world.”

She hummed.

“A prized possession, then,” she said.

Kazuto shook his head, feeling irritation set in. She was thinking about herself too much like an object still. How could he reconnect with her in a way that would change how she considered herself? He clenched his fists as they sat atop the desk. Asuna placed her hands on his left fist and gazed up at him.

“Have I said something wrong?” she asked.

He let out a slow breath through his nose.

“I don’t own you, Asuna,” he said. “I never have, and I never will. You’re my equal. Is that so difficult to understand?”

Asuna remained silent, and then she changed the topic.

“You never answered my question,” she said. “What have you been doing for the past five years besides searching for me?”

There was no use in fighting her condition fully in one night. Kazuto forced himself to relax and went about telling her the things he’d been up to. He talked about school, working as an adult, and about how the relationship with their old friend group was holding up. She continued to listen to him with the same pose as before. He hoped that these words were enough to hold her over until he found a solution to her predicament.

His burning questions came back to the forefront of his mind, though. He wanted to know what these past five years had been to her. He both feared and anticipated the responses, curious to know if she’d felt relieved when he’d found her but worried about the mental state that had resulted from being a captive for so long. Biting his lip, he finally dared to ask it.

“What about you, Asuna?” he said. “What do you remember of the past five years?”

Her head lifted up to him quite suddenly. He couldn’t discern anything from her frozen expression. Her emotions could have matched her permanent smile, or they could be a wild storm. There was no was no telling what was going through her head. No hints were provided from tone or expression.

“It’s difficult for me to understand time right now,” she said, giving a hint of acknowledgement about her humanity. “I remember a lot of sitting in that glass case and seeing people as they walked by. Many faces come to mind, but I couldn’t give you a timeline of when I saw them or where.”

Kazuto felt his heart grow heavy out of pity for her. If only he could have been there to prevent this sad, muddled memory. Five years was a significant loss. She saw such a large chunk of time as nothing more than a blur of faces behind a glass wall she couldn’t cross. Sighing, he reached out and poked her cheek with his finger. She leaned into his touch, resting her head against his hand. He smiled, grateful for her reciprocation. As soon as he solved this, he’d be able to hold her close as herself once again. But for now, she was fragile.

A sudden issue arose in his mind—sleep. He’d longed to sleep beside her for so long that he’d not considered how this predicament rendered her too fragile to be beside him in the bed. He very well couldn’t keep her on the pillow beside his. What if he rolled over and broke her? He’d never forgive himself for such a grave mistake. Kazuto glanced over at the bed and frowned, wondering if, as a doll, she even slept at all.

“Say, Asuna,” he said, “where would you like to sleep?”

She hopped up to her feet and put her hands on her hips, an action that made him almost chuckle with delight. He’d seen this posture before. Even as different as she felt, she was still Asuna, after all.

“Why would you even ask such a thing?” she huffed. “Obviously, I want to sleep next to Kirito—”

He held a finger up to her lips before she let out the uncomfortable honorific she’d been using every time she said his name. He’d had enough of that title for a lifetime back in the Underworld. It felt even stranger coming from Asuna. He longed for the days where the honorific escaping her lips was one of fondness and not reverence.

“You’re a bit too small and fragile to sleep next to me,” he said. 

She shook her head, her hair shaking in a stiff fashion typical of faux hair.

“Where is your head?” she asked. “An arrangement beside your bedside, such as your nightstand or windowsill, will suffice!”

He felt his face flush red at the misinterpretation. Asuna just shook her head back and forth, as if dismayed over his thoughts. He wanted to give her a piece of his mind by reminding her that they’d done much more indecent acts than sharing a bed before, but he kept his mouth shut nonetheless, excusing himself to go and search for an acceptable bedding for her. He located a small blanket and a rather plush pillow that he placed on his desk chair and pulled over beside his bed. Then, he stepped over towards Asuna and let her hop into his hands to transport her easily over to the chair, where she stepped off of his palm daintily.

“I promise, Asuna, that I’ll help you return to normal,” he said.

She pulled herself into the blanket and rested her head against the surface of the pillow. It was enormous compared to her; she could fit her entire body on it. Kazuto chuckled and shook his head. It was so strange. He watched her closely as she nodded slowly and curled up on her side. Her eyes slipped closed, and he raised his eyebrows.

_Ah, so her eyelids_ can _move,_ he thought.

As she silently sat there, with eyes closed and blanket pulled around her fragile body, he smiled. Kazuto reached over and turned off the bedroom light, and then he laid down on his bed, trying to get comfortable. His eyes rested on Asuna, as she lay completely still on the pillow in his chair. She was as close as she could be for now.

He only hoped that soon, she’d be in his arms. 


End file.
